Wayne Rooney has lambasted England supporters who booed the national team
following an insipid goalless draw against Algeria that has placed Fabio
Capello’s World Cup ambitions in severe doubt.

Boos rang out around the Greenpoint Stadium at the final whistle of a game that leaves England needing a win over Slovenia in their final game on Wednesday, prompting Rooney to question their loyalty.

As he made his way from the field he mouthed to a TV camera: “It’s nice to get booed by your own fans. Very loyal.”

The fans’ frustration was such that one supporter managed to breach stadium security and reach the dressing room where he confronted David Beckham, who is part of Capello’s coaching team.

An FA spokesman confirmed that the supporter had breached security checkpoints and said that a formal complaint will be lodged with Fifa. It is understood that the fan followed the team down the tunnel after the final whistle. The FA security team ejected him almost immediately but it was unclear last night if he had been arrested.

The incident will again focus attention at security arrangements in South Africa. Security at the Cape Town stadium is in the hands of thousands of trainee police officers following a strike by security staff over pay, but it clearly failed last night.

Despite sharing Rooney’s disappointment at the fans’ reaction Gareth Barry said he understood their frustration.

“The fans have come a long way and deserved a better performance. They want to see us score and win games. We were below par, and that’s the result you get, boos.”

Barry admitted England would have to improve to beat an accomplished Slovenia.

“We didn’t attack with enough purpose or belief. Now we need to score and win the Slovenia game and we will be working on that. We need to win and we’re capable of that.”

Steven Gerrard, the captain, accepted that the performance had been poor. “Not good enough,” he said. “I don’t know why. We will have to look at it. We have to beat sides like them [Algeria]. This was their World Cup final but we must look at ourselves.”

“I’m not happy with performance, I need more. We weren’t good enough in the final third to get the breakthrough. We know we the job.”

Jermain Defoe, introduced as a substitute for Emile Heskey, called on the fans to support the team in the next game. “[Booing] is part and parcel of playing at this level. You can understand the fans getting frustrated when they have travelled thousands of miles to support the team but it is important for them to get behind us.

“The lads are devastated that we didn’t win. We want to do it for everyone back home, our families, the manager everyone. But it’s important for the fans to keep behind because that will help the team and hopefully we’ll win on Wednesday.

“We didn’t win the game and that’s frustrating. People look at the fixture and say we should win comfortably but that’s never the case because it’s difficult, but it would help if the fans stuck behind the players.”